The Globe: Just What Are You Paying For, Anyway?

I just went through a convenient copy of the Boston Globe. Convenient because (a) we pay them to deliver it to us, and (b) it was intact.

Wednesday April 8, 2009.

I went through and gave each page an estimate of what proportion of it
was filled with Globe-penned material, as opposed to info bought from other places or paid advertising. Here are the results:

Section A. 14 total pages become 4 pages, or 5 if you include the all-columnists page, which I regard as identical in value to a page of selected blogs.

Section B. 16 total pages become 7 pages of content. I am not counting the weather page, as it is hardly unique to the Globe, and I am not counting the paid obituaries. Unpaid obits and gossip are included.

Section C. 14 total pages become 7 pages, but only because there are lots of large photos in the sports section, and because I counted stats as Globe content when they appeared next to a Globe article. I did not count full pages of stats.

So on a randomly selected day, the Globe sends us 44 pages of newsprint which consist of 18 or 19 pages of content that they wrote, plus syndicated reprints and ads.

No wonder it's faster to read online.

The Globe: Just What Are You Paying For, Anyway?

I just went through a convenient copy of the Boston Globe. Convenient because (a) we pay them to deliver it to us, and (b) it was intact.

Wednesday April 8, 2009.

I went through and gave each page an estimate of what proportion of it
was filled with Globe-penned material, as opposed to info bought from other places or paid advertising. Here are the results:

Section A. 14 total pages become 4 pages, or 5 if you include the all-columnists page, which I regard as identical in value to a page of selected blogs.

Section B. 16 total pages become 7 pages of content. I am not counting the weather page, as it is hardly unique to the Globe, and I am not counting the paid obituaries. Unpaid obits and gossip are included.

Section C. 14 total pages become 7 pages, but only because there are lots of large photos in the sports section, and because I counted stats as Globe content when they appeared next to a Globe article. I did not count full pages of stats.

So on a randomly selected day, the Globe sends us 44 pages of newsprint which consist of 18 or 19 pages of content that they wrote, plus syndicated reprints and ads.

No wonder it's faster to read online.